Great Depression Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===European African colonies=== The sharp fall in commodity prices, and the steep decline in exports, hurt the economies of the European colonies in Africa and Asia.<ref>Anthony Latham and John Heaton, ''The Depression and the Developing World, 1914–1939'' (1981).</ref><ref>{{cite journal|jstor=3601244|language=fr|title=Mutation de l'Impérialisme Colonial Français dans les Années 30|journal=African Economic History|issue=4|pages=103–152|last1=Coquery-Vidrovitch|first1=C.|year=1977|doi=10.2307/3601244}}</ref> The agricultural sector was especially hard hit. For example, [[sisal]] had recently become a major export crop in Kenya and Tanganyika. During the depression, it suffered severely from low prices and marketing problems that affected all colonial commodities in Africa. Sisal producers established centralized controls for the export of their fibre.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Westcott | first1 = Nicholas | year = 1984 | title = The East African sisal industry, 1929–1949: the marketing of a colonial commodity during depression and war | journal = Journal of African History | volume = 25 | issue = 4| pages = 445–461 | doi = 10.1017/s0021853700028486 | s2cid = 161203218 }}</ref> There was widespread unemployment and hardship among peasants, labourers, colonial auxiliaries, and artisans.<ref>R. Olufeni Ekundare, ''An Economic History of Nigeria 1860–1960'' (1973) [https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/economic-history-nigeria-1860-1960-r-olufeni-ekundare online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231120210/https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/economic-history-nigeria-1860-1960-r-olufeni-ekundare |date=December 31, 2021 }} pp. 104–226.</ref> The budgets of colonial governments were cut, which forced the reduction in ongoing infrastructure projects, such as the building and upgrading of roads, ports and communications.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Olubomehin | first1 = O.O. | year = 2002 | title = Road Transportation and the Economy of South-Western Nigeria, 1920–1939 | journal = Lagos Historical Review | volume = 2 | pages = 106–121 }}</ref> The budget cuts delayed the schedule for creating systems of higher education.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lungu | first1 = Gatian F. | year = 1993 | title = Educational Policy-Making in Colonial Zambia: The Case of Higher Education for Africans from 1924 to 1964 | journal = The Journal of Negro History | volume = 78 | issue = 4| pages = 207–232 | doi = 10.2307/2717416 | jstor = 2717416 | s2cid = 149538992 }}</ref> The depression severely hurt the export-based [[Belgian Congo]] economy because of the drop in international demand for raw materials and for agricultural products. For example, the price of peanuts fell from 125 to 25 centimes. In some areas, as in the [[Katanga Province|Katanga]] mining region, employment declined by 70%. In the country as a whole, the wage labour force decreased by 72,000 and many men returned to their villages. In Leopoldville, the population decreased by 33%, because of this labour migration.<ref>R. Anstey, ''King Leopold's Legacy: The Congo under Belgian Rule 1908–1960'' (1966), p. 109.</ref> Political protests were not common. However, there was a growing demand that the paternalistic claims be honored by colonial governments to respond vigorously. The theme was that economic reforms were more urgently needed than political reforms.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Ochonu | first1 = Moses | year = 2009 | title = Critical convergence: the Great Depression and the meshing of Nigerian and British anti-colonial polemic | journal = Canadian Journal of African Studies | volume = 43 | issue = 2| pages = 245–281 | doi = 10.1080/00083968.2010.9707572 | s2cid = 142695035 }}</ref> French West Africa launched an extensive program of educational reform in which "rural schools" designed to modernize agriculture would stem the flow of under-employed farm workers to cities where unemployment was high. Students were trained in traditional arts, crafts, and farming techniques and were then expected to return to their own villages and towns.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Gamble | first1 = Harry | year = 2009 | title = Les paysans de l'empire: écoles rurales et imaginaire colonial en Afrique occidentale française dans les années 1930 | journal = Cahiers d'Études Africaines | volume = 49 | issue = 3| pages = 775–803 | doi = 10.4000/etudesafricaines.15630 | doi-access = free }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page